April 12, 2013

I feel like I need to start this article with a whole load of caveats, but I’ll try to avoid that. I apologise in advance for rambles and tangents. Thanks to the stress of supporting Spurs, I, like many of you I’m sure, didn’t get much sleep…

Background

I’m regularly asked on Twitter why I ‘defend’ Emmanuel Adebayor despite his apparent lack of quality and effort. It is impossible to answer that appropriately in 140 characters so here are some hastily put-together thoughts that have been running through my brain overnight, amidst a barage of online abuse for the Togolese striker.

Firstly , I guess I do find myself defending him. This isn’t because I have any particular regard for him as a person or even as a player – he has, in the past, shown signs of being greedy, money-motivated, career-driven, uncaring about his clubs and their fans; in other words, a typical footballer. However, he is also a footballer whose abilities benefited us last season, and should theoretically be able to benefit this season and beyond.

The penalty

Let’s not sugar-coat it, it was an awful penalty. He tried to take the unsavable penalty – high and into the corner. He ended up leaning back after a stuttering run up and got under the ball. Is it, as I’ve heard people say, ‘inexcusable for a professional footballer to miss the target from such close range’? Does this make him a bad player? Of course not. Even Messi missed the target from the penalty spot against Chelsea last season. Clearly, players don’t just try to hit the target – they try to place it so far away from the goalkeeper as to make sure of scoring. Did he miss deliberately? Of course not. A man with his ego would love to have scored and been one of the heroes.

Reasons to dislike

The swathe of popular opinion is currently against him, let’s make that clear from the outset. He’s ex-Arsenal; he’s shown signs of being a mercenary in the past (and therefore it’s easy to apply this to him now); he doesn’t tear around the pitch like a Scott Parker, a Didier Zokora or a Steffen Freund; instead, he has a languid, laid back style – somewhere between Berbatov and Kanoute – that can be seen as arrogance. Essentially he’s pretty easy to dislike, and the above reasons make him an ideal scapegoat for many.

Reasons to like

Last season he excelled. He was a vital player to us – after Kaboul and Modric, he was probably my player of the season. His goals were vital, his assists were vital, and his all round link play (and understanding with Bale, Modric and Van der Vaart in particular) was vital to our (moderate) success.

This season so far

This season, it’s true, he has suffered. Some reasons for this might be:

– a lack of pre-season due to his protracted transfer (be that due to him holding out for more money or otherwise);
– initially being unable to put together a run of games, due to injury / suspension / Defoe’s form;
– playing with Defoe, a player notoriously unable to form partnerships;
– playing without Van der Vaart and Modric, players he so enjoyed playing with last season;
– a lack of confidence caused by all of the above.

The last reason, for me, being the most important. Tellingly, AVB said in the build-up to the Basel game:

“Finding the back of the net allows him to go into the game with more confidence and I always think it’s self-belief from the player, rather than anything else that helps them improve.”

Adebayor the player – nuance

It seems an irritatingly snobbish thing to say, but a lot of his good work does go unnoticed.

Fans get frustrated by his indirect play – he’s not a player who is constantly in the box poaching, for example. But his hold-up and link play, ability to drift wide (dragging defenders away and creating space for others), and his awareness of his teammates are impressive. He will often be the one to make a run to drag a defender away, which indirectly leads to a goal.

He encourages midfielders into the opposition third by dropping deep and creating a focal point/platform for them to play into, and receive the ball back from. We have seen a lot less of that this season due to the sales of Modric and Van der Vaart. Instead, with Bale playing centrally, we are often more direct and will not build in such a slow, patient way. But last season Adebayor was integral to our possession play in the opposition third, and if we do sign a Moutinho-like player, it is essential that we have someone like Adebayor for him to link with.

The attitude / work rate

Some football fans love players who visibly put effort in – who work hard for their club, and do what we as fans would do as a bare minimum were we ever lucky enough to play for the club we love. It speaks volumes that Scott Parker won our Player of the Year last year: a player who almost has to drag himself off the pitch every week, such are his endeavours. A player who gained favour by charging around for 90 minutes, winning the ball back and passing it five yards to the supremely-talented Luka Modric (OK, that downplays him a little, but you see my point). Parker, a player whose own limits have been (almost cruelly) exposed this season by the lack of Modric alongside him.

The antithesis of Parker is the ‘lazy’, uncaring Adebayor. He is not a player to try to rush defenders by pressing them at every opportunity or chase back into midfield if he’s not successfully in retaining possession. But how many strikers are? And do we want them to be? There MUST be a balance between the above, and conserving energy for other areas of the game.

Of course that totally ignores the other types of effort that often go unseen: movement off a defender to show for the ball, movement into the channels to drag defenders around and create space for others, the strength and endurance of constantly holding off brawny defenders.

I’m not saying he’s a workhorse and that people just don’t notice it – of course there are harder working forwards who visibly ‘put more effort it’, to put it simply – but to call him lazy is, in my opinion, unjustified and short-sighted.

Worst striker, etc

I’ve seen it said on Twitter and on forums that Adebyor the worst striker we’ve had in recent seasons. Have we improved so much that we have forgotten some of the dross in our recent past? Our current squad is probably one of the most, if not the most talented we’ve had in my lifetime (I’m not yet thirty), and Adebayor is certainly not one of the worst players within it.

He has played for Monaco, Arsenal, the modern-day Manchester City and Real Madrid. Were he to leave, it would almost certainly be to a club participating in the Champion’s League. He is a very talented player – he may not have a skill-set that tallies with what some fans want to see in a forward, but to criticise his technical ability and all-round game is pretty ludicrous, in my opinion. By all means have an opinion about what you want to see from our forwards, what you want to see him do more or less of, but worst striker in x years? Really? It’s also important to look beyond form – all players have ups and downs, just look at fan-favourite Defoe, who seems to suffer from dips in form more than most. Or more recently Jan Vertonghen, who was absolutely outstanding in March, but has had a pretty appalling April so far.

Agendas

Of course, most football fans will, knowingly or unknowingly, have agendas. If I’m honest, my own is based on youth players; because I follow the youth teams, I like to see products of our academy involved in the first team squad. Rightly or wrongly, I call for them to be involved (be it from the start of games or from the bench) on more occasions than other fans might. For example, I have frequently called for Tom Carroll to be involved in games when others might not think he is ready yet.

Many fans seem to have an unwavering agenda with regards to Adebayor. For years he was the unfortunate victim of a deeply unpleasant song, shamefully sung by a section of our fans – he was a hate figure, as he played for the enemy. Some fans would simply never take to him, simple. However, the level of negativity towards him – even after a successful first season is confusing – particularly when the leeway offered by fans to similarly under-performing players is clear to see.

Defoe and Acebayor have a similar scoring record since the turn of the year, but whilst Defoe’s name is still sung out even when he is sat in the bench, Adebayor’s name is sometimes booed when read out by the stadium announcer prior to matches.

Clearly Defoe has earned affection – scoring regularly over a lengthy spell at the club, and showing what appears to be a genuine passion for THFC. On the other hand, Adebayor is perceived as a mercenary who stops trying after becoming too comfortable at hus clubs – or so the press’ narrative would have us believe. And so it goes – agendas are built on perception, a player’s lack of confidence is perceived as not trying, and the vicious circle continues.

The future

As mentioned, I have no attachment to Adebayor as a player or person and, so long as we replaced him adequately, I couldn’t care less if he was to leave in the summer. In fact, I think it’s probably for the best that he does, such is the job in ‘convincing’ our fans that he would have ahead of him were he to stay.

I just hope that we aren’t cutting off our nose to spite our face. Were we to sign a Moutinho type or a van der Vaart type, we may end up greatly missing a technically-gifted forward who can play one and two touch passing football, bring talented attacking midfielders into play, and who has the ability and intelligence to draw defenders out wide and create space for others.

Support

The negativity towards Adebayor (I heard boos when his name was read out at Swansea – I thought our away fans were meant to be steadfastly supportive?) is, in my opinion, depressing.

More so because it is so obvious to me that Adebayor is a confidence player – a player who is bubbly, bright, and plays well when his metaphorical tail is up, and who suffers when things are not going so well – on or off the pitch. To get the best out of him, we need to get behind him. Can I see that happening? Unfortunately not.

We all want what is best for Tottenham Hotspur – we just have different opinions on how we achieve it. Even if you disagree with my opinion that Adebayor is a player affected by confidence, and instead think that he is an arrogant mercenary, consider whether you think that moaning, groaning, booing and jeering has any chance of helping him improve his form. Alternatively, what if I’m right? What if our collective support can help to get an extra 5% out of him? What have we got to lose?

This seems a good time to mention the 1882 event coming up. If you fancy being a part of a crowd who will sing for the lilywhite shirt of Tottenham Hotspur, regardless of whether the player in it is Ledley King, Emmanuel Adebayor, or Kenneth McEvoy (who?), then you should read this, and come along to watch our U21s take on Arsenal at Underhill.

He’s definitely not the worst and he has been coming slowly back to form. Hopefully he can play a big role for us in the rest of the league season. But he has the most horrendous first touch and takes an age to bring under control long balls played to him. Often he has to go back rather than forward, giving defences a chance to regroup behind him. It affects both his chance conversion rate and his ability to hold up the ball and play meaningful passes to others. Compare in this respect to Berbatov!

You fail to mention though, as the commentators did last night, that he is not in the box enough. He is a striker, he is there to score goals but he doesn’t have that burning desire to do so. He spends far too much time on the wing. Sell him, buy an upgrade, Damiao, Higuain or Negrado.

Considered writing about this but I thought that if any English player was called up to represent their country, we’d have absolutely no problem with it. And regarding his slightly late return, English players all got extra time off after Euros.

I don’t think you fully grasp the point of the article. Turn your monitor upside-down – it might work better.

But seriously, if we, the fans, get behind him for the rest of the season, we just might get a bit more end-product out of him – which could ultimately help fulfill our objectives for the term. Getting on his back will NOT help us achieve a top-four spot this year.

Get behind him until a better option is available. We demoralise him (further?) and the club thus supporters suffer the consequences. We must play our part even if Abedayor can not, or are we to be as guilty as he is and fail as supporters?

this is rubbish. he should never have been bought in the first place. he is a lazy money grabber and has been abysmal all season except for a cameo in the Everton game. The chairman has screwed up every transfer window since we sold Berba with nonsense last minute efforts to “buy” a striker. This clown was bought because he was cheap and for no other reason. if i had my way i would not let him on the pitch in a white shirt ever again. I have seen more effort in a game on the marshes. Pathetic

Ahh yes, effort. Bring back Zokora! Or Jenas, he always runs around a lot. Oh hang on, nope he got the hate too. But you’re right, should never have let Berba go – now there was a guy who always left it all on the field.

Very good article, apart from the penalty yesterday I thought Ade was one of our best players; held the ball up and often had very little support.
I’m a Spurs fan, I cheer whoever is wearing the shirt, booing isn’t going to do anything.
We need to get behind the team to help push on!
P.s I cant believe you’re not 30 yet. I’ve always pictured you as an old man

I am behind whoever pulls on the white shirt of Tottenham Windy and whilst i agree with a lot of what you wrote, I do feel that Adebayor could do a bit more to convince the nay sayers. I agree that he is both talented and a confidence player, but I get so frustrated with his conversion rate. I also feel the same about Jermain Defoe, who I would have sold some time ago. At present, however, we have no choice and until either or both are replaced, then I will gladly call out their names! I am a bit spoiled though, as I grew up with players like Gilzean, Smith, Greaves, Chivers and Peters! Oh what I would give to have any one or two of them now, or even John Duncan, or possibly even Crooks and Archibald, or Lineker, or Clive Allen!!

Ill tell you why we booed him at swansea, the fans who travel every single week and spend ridiculous money to watch that joke of a footballer can’t take it no more, he earns more then every player at our club (double gareth bale) yet puts in the least effort every week, how can that be justified ?! If you went every game last season you’d see that players like luka and vdv made him look half decent, he was playing for a contract, now he has it he couldn’t give a fuck and should never put on a spurs shirt again !

Longer term, we’re better off putting together a team of good players who play in the same style than pinning our hopes on a lone hero like Bale to win every game for us. When we do get a more creative midfield, having a striker like Ade would be perfect.

adeboyar is useless he cant controll a ball he is his positiong all wrong,teriible in heading the ballwhen we play with him in the team we are playing with ten men. any of the youngstrs would better than him.

The guy is awful, his first touch bounces 10 yards off him everytime annd his finishig consists of passing the ball into the keepers hands. I would rather have any youth team striker at least they’ll put the effort in

And of course if they don’t put enough effort in, or aren’t quite good enough, we can just boo them too, right. Then we’ll get someone else in, until they do something we don’t like, and boo them too. Then we’ll just blame Levy for not running the club properly.

Why do you (and so many other bloggers) always claim that critics of your favourites, Adebayor, AVB, whoever, are taking their lead from ‘the press’, who you seem to believe have it in for Spurs. Anyone with eyes and a brain knows that Adebayor DOES stop trying once he’s got the contract under his belt – the evidence is there on the pitch for all to see, and you don’t have to read it in the papers to recognize the truth. Oh, and Defoe is just as useless – get rid!

Adebayor is definitely a frustrating player. I’ve had a go at him on twitter on a number of occasions but you have to take 140 character rants with a pinch of salt and remember that not everyone who bangs on about him on social media sites is abusing him at the games.

My negativity at games is restricted to the occasional wail from the heart or the gut as the team fails to match up to the free flowing yet solid Tottenham that exists in my head. I never boo, I never abuse individual players and I certainly never sing, or sang, the shameful anti Sol or anti Adebayor songs because, you know, I try to be a decent human being on occasion.

He’s certainly not the worst player, or awful. Anyone who says he is clearly isn’t to be taken seriously or doesn’t mean it seriously. If he was, he wouldn’t be so frustrating.

He does seem to have a penchant for playing the ballboy role. Its almost as if he’s worked out that its a way of making it look like you care about the game without having to, you know, care about the game. I think everyone can see his faults, though. As Windy said, to ignore his attributes does make me think a lot of people have an agenda. I can see he winds people up the wrong way but I’ve decided to see him as a pantomime villain and to start defending him.

This started last night on twitter. I ended up posing as an Adebayor defender. The mild trolling (telling people that if you cut him open he bleeds blue and white) made me (at least) laugh and made me feel better. I found it a lot more cathartic defending him than I do abusing him – anything the guy does is going to get him dog’s abuse. Its not his fault we didn’t sign any viable alternatives and he’s here now and you may as well enjoy his ‘idiosyncracies’.

Some people smile – it doesn’t automatically mean “I am very happy”. In fact, in his first season the fact that Adebayor smiles on the pitch a lot seemed endearing because its so unusual. I remember one tussle with Bellamy last season where they were both in hysterics about something or other. Ok you could say that the fact that they bonded whilst sitting on their hands at Man City tells you something about both them and modern football, but actually I grew to like Adebayor. I’m in favour of people smiling – try it.

Now that he’s been – let’s say – average this season, I get frustrated with him. But at least he offers something unlike those on twitter who just slag him off for smiling or for running funny. I suspect Adebayor is like a lot of us. Good points and bad. I doubt I would have been quite so cool about coming back to be abused by thousands of people on a weekly basis when I had been the victim of a gun attack, so he may have a bit more character than some people give him credit for. If you take the unsavoury abuse away, there is a lot of valid criticism of him but it also gets completely hysterical at times. Twitter magnifies all that.

A Gooner’s perspective? Well Ade was brilliant for us for one season (and I mean really, really good) and then crap for the one after. At Man City he was great for one season and then crap the next. Madrid good for half a season and then crap the next. You lot, great last season and totally useless this one. Anyone see a pattern here?
Ade, when he’s playing, focused and motivated is almost unstopable. When he was on fire for us I remember him destroying you lot on more than one occassion. Trouble is he cannot keep that level of performance up. And I dont think its anything to do with ability, more to do with his attitude.
His career is a broken record of one good season followed by one crap one. He is too old to change so I think he is what he is.
My advice, sell him, give him away for nothing if you have to as he’s a bad influence and example to the team.

Spurs need to do somwe pruning with the squad and build a squad capable of playing different formations and have adequate quality cover due to suspensions or injuriees. I dont care if the players are massive names, just players that are quality in possession and are competent at their jobs. The scouts need to be working hard to scour the globe to find talent. Players are out there and well within our budget

I wish I could be so confident about him. I would much rather have some young hungry blood in the squad in place of the likes of old, playing out their career type of players like Gallas or Ade. They don’t show the right attitude on the pitch. I would much rather have a player who is a fighter, who may have limitations, but will fight to get a result. Ade’s biggest mistake yesterday was not missing the penalty, but not passing to Siggy in the final minutes when we could have grabbed a last minute winner.

the thought we had not enough attacking talent to bring the best out of him is flawed,after the subs last night we only had creative types left on the pitch. dawson is a fans favourite because he gives everything, not because hes the best defender, i applaud your unfazed support but there are no excuses left for ade.

It just fucks me off how people can actually defend this muppet, any one of us would put that shirt on and run our bollocks off for 90 mins week in week out for nothing, yet he’s being paid 170 grand a week and does fuck all and you can defend that ?!?!

What bothers me more than anything is that as a Spurs fan for 28 years, I’ve always been proud of our support. We don’t boo our own players. We leave that to the lot up the road. Atmosphere and passion has been a hallmark of WHL and even more so with our fantastic “away” fans. Maybe that was because in the past we didn’t expect results and were happy when we occasionally excelled. Now we are “moderately” successful, a section of fans almost seem to feel that they have a right to boo our players, feeling that they aren’t up to scratch for Spurs. If those “fans” had seen some of the dross that we have had to put up with in my time (who can forget the Andy Booth years!) then they would realise that this squad of players is better than we have had for a number of years. Add in the fact that from an outsiders perspective, the spirit within the squad looks better than ever. If only these fans could get behind the team, rather than getting on their backs at the first sign of trouble, then the air of tension that permeates home games would be gone and maybe players wouldn’t be so afraid of making a mistake. Sure, Ade missed and the run-up didn’t help. But if there is one player that needs fans to back him, its Ade. We’re all in it together, we all have the same goal, so we should all get behind the team and make sure that we achieve what we set out to.

For some reason there seems to be a sense of entitlement growing amongst some Spurs supporters that I can’t really get. I’m ecstatic that we are where we are after years of being mocked for being a spurs fan as all my friends supported Arsenal, Man U, Liverpool. Yet to those same fans I’m then considered small minded and we at the mighty tottenham hotspur should set our sights higher.

This season he has been appalling. Last night he was appalling. And i find myself agreeing with the Arsenal fan about one good season, one bad. It’s attitude and he won’t change.

I think the reason he has peeved off so many of us this season stems from his baffling decision to come out of retirement to play in the African Cup of Nations, at a time when the club didn’t have a striker fit in its books. As much as it was poor foresight from the club for not adding one or two to the squad, Ade’s decision was a bad one. He deserted the club when we most needed him. The club stuck by him him to offer him a full contract in the summer, knowing they had a player that wasn’t due to play in the the ACN. And then with Dempsey and Defoe injured, he decided he wanted to go. Loyalty. There was an opportunity to show the club and fans that he was truly committed to the cause, the aim, the project.

In my opinion, he stabbed the club, the fans and AVB in the back.

This, i think, is why so many fans are upset with him this season.

And then he walks (mostly) around the pitch grinning like a village idiot. He misses changes and smiles. He gets sent off against Arsenal and smiles. And last night missed an awful penalty and smiles.

So people with more loyalty points and who travel every week to support there club don’t have more of a right to voice there opinion then ppl who sit at home nd watch on telly lool ? Be real, my dad has the most loyalty points in the club, been every single game this year home away nd abroad and spends around 6 grand doing so but he can’t complain and should defend a cunt who does fuck all for our team ?! You lot are honestly ill

Your dad does NOT have more of a right to voice his opinion than people who sit at home and watch on telly!

You might give more weight to his opinion because of that.

I might judge his opinion based on whether it rings true rather than how much he spends on going to see Tottenham, although good on him for going to every game.

But he doesn’t have more of a right than Windy (did you notice that Windy actually went to the Swansea game, by the way) to express his opinion, and his opinion isn’t right just becaus he goes to every game.

I imagine Lord Sugar went to most Spurs games at one point. And spent a lot more on Tottenham than your dad.

At the end of the day the club has moved forward since the days or taricco mabizela atouba and bunjey, were fighting for 3rd in the league, shit like ade shouldn’t be at our club, if he put in 100 per cent every game but was still crap he wouldn’t be getting so much stick, parkers been dreadful this season but because he always gives 110 per cent every game ppl let it go, this cunt up front makes no effort at all, 1 game in 10 hell give 80 per cent

windy coys, i had tweeted about the effect of the absence of VDV on Ade, I believe Ade def. needs to be in the box more often, when Sandro returns, Dembele will be allowed more freedom, and i think holtby should play AM, really rate him, played well again, and Carroll needs more of a look in, Cant fault Siggy’s commitment, technically gifted,set piece specialist, young and links well with Bale, just think that next year with Townsend Kans Sandro back and Bale in his new second striker posiition, we will look like a new team, as for Ade, i still believe he can come good, no one gets 17 goals and 11 assits if they arent good, and the same goes for Clint, think AVB will need to use the summer to sort out these problems, however it is essential we sign another striker, THE striker, surely the competition will get the best out of Ade and Defoe, Jan is class ,Daws is always all in, top bloke, with Kabs and Sandro’s return next year, we will only get stronger, also would like it if you could break up why we have been conceding from corners, especially those from the right wing, we def. need to practice more on that, cant fault the lads attitude post the Everton game, from lead conceders, we have started earining vital points late on.
COYS
P.s Superjan will miss the first few Cl games next year:(

Also windy, love your blog, top class, would also like to see analysis and break down of the goals we score, your the best at analysis, also Salah looks like some player, young and quick ,would welcome him into our side Levy snap him up

I feel an impulsion to attack any article giving any credence to the concept of Adebayor as a ‘good’ footballer. Laziness doesn’t necessarily breed apathy from the fans, as seen when one nonchalant bulgarian came onto the scene. So long as the player’s class subsidises his work ethos, one can’t lament his style. Yet Adebayor is classless, lacking any real technical attribute expected of a striker. Yes he’s tall, but his heading is largely ineffective. Yes his positioning seems on par with Gervinho’s, alas like Gervinho, he fears the reality of a ‘chance’ on goal. A striker with no composure, but more importantly, no brain. Whilst our thinly stripped squad was yesterday, in theory, forced to rely on the intelligence of Holtby/Sig/Mouss rather than the pace of our legendary wingers, Adebayor finds himself lost in such situations. Unable to calibrate on the wave length of others, ineffective in his own duties, I for one will be cheering the departure of Adebayor. We really would be better off with 10 men, as Mr Adebayor has an unrivaled ability of spoiling others good build up play. Ship him out daniel, im sure you’ll see him for more than any spurs fan truly knows he’s worth!

Man Windy. Did you join Adebayor’s PR Team ? 🙂 I sort of get the gist of what your getting at of “Yeah, he does that bad, but he does this well which is noticed much”.

The problem I have with alot of it –> At the end of the day, he is a Striker who is measured on creating scoring chances and bagging goals. And he is paid quite handsomely by the club to achieve. Looking at his body of work on those very objectives this year, he has failed miserably.

This analogy might be a bit of a stretch, but it has merit. Just take your Keeper who consistently gives up goals and is wretched in front of the net on preventing the opposition from scoring ? But say he had a few attributes , like his lovely ability to kick the ball down the field and set up goals. Or , he is solid w/ his hands and feet and can release both fullbacks to create scoring chances. And, maybe he is a great leader who is great in the locker room. But, at the end of the day, how will that keeper be measured ?

And if you want an indictment of Adebayor –> Working on two years of Prem footy. His supposed aerial prowess has produced exactly (3) goals via his head which have impacted exactly (2) games. Personally, I think a lot of this has to do with desire which he seems to consistently lack.

And you can look to last year’s numbers all you want, but if dig a little deeper. Adebayor has a MF of Bale, VDV,Modric & Lennon who created the most scoring chances in the Prem LY. He scored exactly 12 goals from the Run of Play (Subtracting his 5 PK goals). Unacceptable

Adebayor is holding this club back. Just like Crouch a few years back, who was obviously a bit more direct, but lacked the few attributes that Adebayor serves up.

Spurs need a skillful Striker who is both technically gifted, but also is Direct. In watching Benteke all season, he fits the bill for the most part and I welcome his arrival this summer if levy can pull it off.

Ade makes 100k in wages a week. He is set for life. He doesn’t give a fooock about any of us. Feel no pity for him.

Let’s say for argument’s sake that Adeybayor is the shittest player ever to pull on a Spurs shirt. If anyone can explain to me how booing and abusing him will make him play better or the team more likely to win then I’ll gladly join in.

totally agree that booing abusing him is not the way to do it ,but do we need to start with him it like having 10 men for 90 mins why not drop him and let tom carrol or anyone else have a run in the team. on a positive note looking forward to Barnet will not quiet be Amsterdam but at least its only a bus journey away COYS

Good comments windy. I find it odd that people should be making Adebayor a scapegoat for last night – did they watch the match? Ade wasn’t bad and has in fact put in afew deccent shifts recently & scored a couple of goals to boot. If he roams maybe this is what AVB tells him to do…OK, so he missed a penalty, he’s not the only one to do that. A bigger mistake was a couple minutes before the end of extra time when he was breaking thru and could have laid it off to the left ( I think it was sigurdson ) who could have had a clear shot on goal. If you want a scapegoat for last night try Dembele whose really dumb mistake led to their first goal or Verthongen whose red card all but ended are chances. 11 against 11 and I think we would have edged it as we were gaining the upper hand…

Superb article on two fronts: 1) setting the facts straight in a calm, cogent manner, which given the subject is difficult; 2) flushing out a host of moronic responses, which is not so difficult, Cheshuntboy, for example, regularly posts his effortlessly stupid observations on various forums, no doubt to mark more people aware of his sink hole of a brain.
I can’t add to anything you or Spooky have written, but would like to comment on two things. One is the ACN: few of us will have experienced any war situation as a civilian and an adult (I did, but was only 7 years old), therefore how that affected Adebayor is beyond us. It must have been a difficult decision, but he has the right to represent his country. Secondly, the run up to the penalty and at this point I will not pass comment on that berk from Amstrad. The match was player in teeming rain on a sodden pitch. The players were shattered and I am glad that Adebayor didn’t run around in extra time like a lot of cretinous little Englanders would have players do. The little jig may have just been to loosen up his lactic acid laden legs and yes he does run about, just like he did to allow space for Sigurdsson to thread a pass for Bale to open the scoring against the Goons.
Thanks once again for this much needed article for an unfairly maligned player (Dempsey is another one). For many, he will always be an ex-Arsenal player, just like Gallas. Frankly, these people can fuck off!

Superb article on two fronts: 1) setting the facts straight in a calm, cogent manner, which given the subject is difficult; 2) flushing out a host of moronic responses, which is not so difficult, Cheshuntboy, for example, regularly posts his effortlessly stupid observations on various forums, no doubt to make more people aware of his sink hole of a brain.
I can’t add to anything you or Spooky have written, but would like to comment on two things. One is the ACN: few of us will have experienced any war situation as a civilian and an adult (I did, but was only 7 years old), therefore how that affected Adebayor is beyond us. It must have been a difficult decision, but he has the right to represent his country. Secondly, the run up to the penalty and at this point I will not pass comment on that berk from Amstrad. The match was player in teeming rain on a sodden pitch. The players were shattered and I am glad that Adebayor didn’t run around in extra time like a lot of cretinous little Englanders would have players do. The little jig may have just been to loosen up his lactic acid laden legs; and yes he does run about, just like he did to allow space for Sigurdsson to thread a pass for Bale to open the scoring against the Goons.
Thanks once again for this much needed article for an unfairly maligned player (Dempsey is another one). For many, he will always be an ex-Arsenal player, just like Gallas. Frankly, these people can fuck off!